A Bigger Splash
A Bigger Splash | |
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Artist | David Hockney |
Year | 1967 |
Medium | Acrylic on canvas |
Dimensions | 242.5 cm × 243.9 cm (95.5 in × 96.0 in) |
Location | Tate Britain, London |
A Bigger Splash is a large pop art painting by British artist David Hockney. Measuring 242.5 centimetres (95.5 in) by 243.9 centimetres (96.0 in), it depicts a swimming pool beside a modern house, disturbed by a large splash of water created by an unseen figure who has apparently just jumped in from a diving board. It was painted in California between April and June 1967, when Hockney was teaching at the University of California, Berkeley. Jack Hazan's fictionalised 1973 biopic, A Bigger Splash, concentrating on the breakup of Hockney's relationship with Peter Schlesinger, was named after the painting.
Luca Guadagnino's 2015 film A Bigger Splash (a loose remake of La Piscine) was also named after the painting.[1]
Description
A Bigger Splash shows a typical California day – warm and sunny, with a cloudless blue sky. In the background, two
Hockney's composition is based on a photograph of a swimming pool in a book and an earlier drawing by Hockney of Californian buildings. It was created with meticulous care, simplified, but enlarging his earlier paintings entitled A Little Splash (1966) and The Splash (1966) (both are held in private collections; the latter was sold for £2.6 million in 2006[3][4] and for £23.1 million in 2020, both times by auction at Sotheby's in London[5]). The canvas – almost a perfect square – is dominated by the strong vertical and horizontal lines of the trees, the building, and the edge of the pool; it is divided evenly into the sky, building and patio in the upper half, and the pool and diving board in the lower half. The rectilinear composition is broken by the oblique thrust of the diving board. The calmness of the overall composition contrasts with the violent explosion of water caused by diver. Hockney has expressed his pleasure at taking two weeks to paint a moment that lasted two seconds.[6]
In a March 2009 interview for the Tate, to the question "Who jumped into the pool?" Hockney answers: "I don't know actually. It was done from a photograph of a splash. That I haven't taken, but that's what it's commenting on. The stillness of an image. (...) Most of the painting was spent on the splash and the splash lasts two seconds and the building is permanent there. That's what it's about actually. You have to look in at the details."[7]
Composition
The painting was made using acrylic
Sale history
The Marquess of Dufferin and Ava bought the finished work from John Kasmin's gallery in 1968, and sold it to the Tate in 1981.[9]
Notes
- ^ "A Bigger Splash: Luca Guadagnino Interview". The Arts Shelf. 28 June 2016. Retrieved 15 September 2016.
- ^ WebMuseum
- ^ Hockney painting sells for £2.6m, BBC News, 22 June 2006
- ^ The Splash Archived 25 April 2018 at the Wayback Machine, Sotheby's, 21 June 2006
- ^ "David Hockney's The Splash fetches £23.1m at auction". BBC News. 11 February 2020. Retrieved 11 February 2020.
- ^ Tate catalogue, quoting David Hockney by David Hockney
- ^ Tate: The archive twitter with David Hockney Archived March 3, 2016, at the Wayback Machine
- ISBN 0-7190-4405-7
- ^ "David Hockney A Bigger Splash 1967". Tate. Retrieved 19 March 2023.
Purchased from the Marquis of Dufferin and Ava through the Knoedler Gallery (Grant-in-Aid) 1981 Prov: the Marquis of Dufferin and Ava (purchased from Kasmin Ltd, 1968)
References
- Full catalogue entry from The Tate
- A Bigger Splash, WebMuseum
- Hockney, David: A Bigger Splash (1967), The Independent, 11 May 2007
External links
- British artist David Hockney on A Bigger Splash, BBC Nottingham, 30 November 2009 (video)